"Paid to a woman and her husband that lay in at the widow Winn's, 1s."
The love of feasting at the public expense is as apparent in this churchwardens' book, though on a small scale, as in the old corporation archives, which I have already published. A dinner was always provided to commemorate the election of the churchwardens. When Mr. Thomas Shewring and Mr. Thomas Elcox were appointed, in 1673, the following provision was made:
"A crop of beefe, wtt, 47 lb., att 2-1/2d., &c., 10s. 3d.
"Two quarters veale, 9s. 10d.
"A dozen piggeons, 18d.
"Butter, flour, making, and baking, altogether, 4s. 9-1/2d.
"9 lb. baccon of the ribbs at 5d., 3s. 9d.
"Mr. Ferryman for tobacco, 3d.
"Mr. Thomas Vicaris for bread, beare, pipes, tobacco, and all other materials, and to cleane the house, and for dressing the dinner, £1."
A quarter of lamb was 1s. 10d.; 5 lb. of candles for ye parish lanthorn, 9d.; two fat pigs, 5s.; a leg of mutton, 1s. 8d.; capers, 4d.; orange and lemon, 4d.; and a soft cheese (probably cream cheese) is charged 1s. in 1691; 2 lb. "candles to burn by ye church side winter nights," 8d.; and "four tunnes and a halfe of coles att 6s. 4d. pr tunn," £1. 8s. 6d. Dinners or drinking bouts, or both, were given on procession days, visitation days, and at "the assessing the rolls"—that is, when the poor-rate (if so it might be called) was assessed on the parishioners. The "processions" probably were the same as the perambulations, or "beating the bounds," the churchwardens apparently taking a personal survey of the parish boundaries once a year, in the month of May, and immense preparations were made for that purpose, including (in 1674) half a gross of pipes, 6d.; half a pound tobacco, 10d.; and "paid for ale before our own was tapped," 4d. Each parish in those days kept its own "church ales." Charges are made for dozens of "white poyntes for the boyes" in these perambulation accounts. Were these wands, or what else? The perambulating party generally wound up the day at the Globe, where they dined.